I just read The Circle, Dave Egger’s 2013 dystopian novel about a young employee of a tech company that aspires to “complete the circle”: making all information available to everyone, all the time, with the mantra “privacy is theft”. I found the technology discussion obtuse, but the themes resonated with me.

In the book, the titular company seeks to abolish privacy through the use of “SeeChange” cameras. The leadership of this company genuinely believes that consolidation of the world’s information in a single for-profit company is in the interest of humanity. The novel illustrates the absurdity of this idea through personal tragedy.